Indian engineer wins automotive design award in Europe

Amrit Sharma has won an automotive design award for his work on the Ecosse ES1, an experimental high-speed motorcycle

Amrit Sharma, a PhD student of Indian origin, from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Imperial College London, has won a gold medal for automotive design at the Young European Arena of Research Awards.

The awards were announced at the Transport Research Arena conference in Slovenia last month, and Sharma won the award for his work on the Ecosse ES1, an experimental high-speed motorcycle. ‘I am extremely flattered to have taken home a gold medal. There were a lot of good entrants from across Europe and coming first out of a very strong field is an achievement,’ said Sharma.

Sharma worked on various mathematical models which show how air flowing over a bike can exert pressures on the vehicle, thus slowing it down and making it less efficient. New designs tested by Sharma’s model include rearranging the motorcycle’s front and rear suspension, moving the chain drive, and altering where the rider’s feet and upper body are located.

This creates an entirely new shape for the bike, which, according to tests, dramatically reduces the dragging effects of air flowing over the vehicle by approximately 50 percent, and helps increase its speed by 30 percent.